Here’s a link to the article on NPR (http://n.pr/1lrRnq3 Given, the current agreement is, that there is 10 : 1 ratio of bacteria in our microbiome to cells in our body. There appears to be 10 times more viruses (bacteriophages) in the microbiome than bacteria. This is in terms of genetic material. “In the 1920s and 1930s, before widespread use of antibiotics, physicians successfully treated a variety of infections with bacteriophages, or phages for short. These natural viral predators, which target bacteria but leave mammalian and plant cells unscathed, were sold by pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly & Company1 and even made it into the fiction of the time—the protagonist of Sinclair Lewis’ 1925 book Arrowsmith fought bubonic plague with phages.” Globe-Trotting Virus Hides Inside People’s Gut Bacteria New viruses are a dime a dozen. Every few months, we hear about a newly discovered flu virus that’s jumped from birds to people somewhere in the world. And the number of viruses identified in bats is “extraordinary and appears to increase almost daily,” scientists wrote last year in the journal PLOS Pathogens. But a virus that has...

CNN – Breathe easier all season – By Betsy Stephens – (Tuesday, February 19, 2013) – From a stuffy head to that whistling in your nostrils, breathing’s no breeze this time of year. “When your nose is exposed to cold, it runs,” period, explains Dr. Michael Benninger, chair of the Head and Neck Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. That’s because our nasal passages are designed to warm and humidify air before it gets to the lungs. In colder temperatures, the nose overcompensates by producing extra mucus. It can thicken when exposed to the dry air outside and irritate your throat or your sinuses, those hollow cavities behind your nose and forehead.

If you suffer from seasonal allergies, you are not alone. Twenty percent of the US population (about 50 million people) make over 10 million visits to doctors every year for this common concern. Multiple factors conspire to create the dreaded days of runny noses, itchy and watery eyes, relentless sneezing, scratchy throats and just generally not feeling up to snuff.

ABNORMAL SLEEP PERIODS INCREASE CARDIOVASCULAR RISK: A study has shown that, even among healthy people, those who regularly get five hours or less sleep a night have more than double the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Also, people who regularly get nine or more hours of sleep a night have a greater than fifty percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Perhaps more surprising, people who get six or eight hours sleep also have a higher – but far less dramatic – increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The study advised that seven hours sleep per night, not six or eight or anything more extreme, was the ideal regular sleep period for cardiovascular health. But how could sleep period affect heart health? The researchers suggested that shorter sleep times can cause “impaired glucose tolerance, reduced insulin sensitivity, increased sympathetic [nerve] activity and elevated blood pressure, all of which increase the risk of hardening of the arteries. And longer sleep duration may be related to an underlying sleep-related breathing disorder or poor sleep quality. The study was published in the August 1, 2010...

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as is proliferation of the virus.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/10/12/091012taco_talk_specter I agree with a good amount of this article EXCEPT the implication at the end that one should receive the vaccine. My husband had the swine flu 2 weeks ago. It was uncomfortable for a few days, but not a big deal. The more relevant concern about the vaccine, and flu shots in general, is that they do NOT change the mortality nor mordibity based on analysis of many decades of annual influenza episodes. See an earlier post about vaccines not preventing flu. In other words, since flu shots became readily available, the only entities to reliably benefit are the vaccine manufacturers. Vaccines have not changed the course of seasonal flus. Additionally, I have personally experienced, as well as witnessed in numerous patients, becoming quite ill with the flu directly after receiving a flu shot. I only got one, many years ago. That was my last! The only time I will recommend a flu shot is to an elderely, immuno-compromised person especially if they need to be hospitalized or institutionalized. In just about any other situation, in my opinion,...

A new study published in the October 2007 Lancet (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science) by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, concludes that influenza vaccinations in the US have prevented fewer deaths